As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
In some information handling systems, data is stored in a hard drive device. One type of hard drive device is an SSD which uses solid state circuitry for data storage, rather than magnetic disks. Typical hard drive devices are designated as 2.5″ drives or 3.5″ drives, because of the physical dimensions or form factor of the devices, although other form factors may exist. Industry standard hard drives typically consume twelve (12) Watts of power or less, although some drives may consume up to twenty-five (25) Watts of power. As capacity in SSDs increases, power consumption is trending more to the 25 Watt regime.
Typical servers are have been designed with reference to 12 Watt drives. The trend toward 25 Watt devices poses several design issues, including heat dissipation issues. In order to cool the higher power drives, more air needs to be drawn across surfaces of the housing. As used herein, the term “housing” refers to industry standard mass storage device form factor housings. Some device manufacturers have started to incorporate heat sink fins in the housing of SSDs. The heat sink fins provide greater total surface area for heat dissipation. Additionally, in some systems the heat sink fins may reduce airflow impedance at the front of the server.
An example of an SSD with heatsink fins is illustrated in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 illustrates an SSD 100 of the prior art. The SSD 100 includes a first housing portion 102 and a second housing portion 104 coupled together by a housing fastener 106, such as a screw. Heatsink fins 108 are formed along the length of at least one of the first housing portion 102 or the second housing portion 104. Corresponding grooves 110 are also formed along the length of the drive resulting in an overall increase in the surface area of the housing which is useful for heat dissipation. Additionally, the heatsink fins 108 and grooves 110 direct air flow along the length of the SSD 100.
The SSD heatsink features are beneficial for drives that are inserted into the front of a server. A problem arises when the SSDs are inserted in a server where the air flows perpendicular to the drive. An example is the storage blade in drawer-chassis modular server. In this implementation the drives are mounted sideways in the chassis. The heatsink fins of FIG. 1 are of no value when the air flows perpendicular to the heatsink fins. In this instance the fins actually impede the flow of air and reduce overall cooling efficiency.